‘Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s wrong to drink alone?’
I jump and spin, the bottle slamming back down. ‘Ax!’
I can’t see him properly. He’s sat in the shadows, a dark silhouette cut by the tower’s glow, but Iknowhim. Every line of that frame. That voice… that fucking voice that spikes my pulse and makes my body sing.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘Hello to you too.’
‘Sorry, I’m just…’
Just what? Shocked. Relieved. Unable to believe it’shim.Here. Now.
After all this time, and nothing.
His head lifts. ‘You’re…?’
‘How did you know I was here?’
His mouth quirks, the hint of a smirk edging into the light. He’s growing his beard back, and the stupidest part of all? I’m ridiculously happy to see it.
‘I always know where you are, Tay.’
A hot shiver skates down my spine, goosebumps rising. Always?
He can’t be serious.
You reckon?
I’d laugh it off if I wasn’t so tightly coiled. Even my custom-made dress feels two sizes too small, my skin stretched thin.
‘I can count on one hand the number of times you’ve visited me in my clubs abroad,’ I manage to say.
‘This couldn’t wait.’
‘This?’ I ask, fingers caressing the skin behind my ear as I summon up the confidence his absence stole.
He gestures to a leather folder on the small table beside him. ‘You want to come and get it?’
My throat goes dry as I stare at the official-looking docket. Why does it feel like he’s daring me to do just that?
‘What’s the matter, Tay? Nervous?’
I laugh – too quick, too high – and it only proves him right.
‘Should I be?’
‘You tell me, Baby Girl.’
Baby Girl?
Surely, that means…
A blush creeps up my chest and into my cheeks. I hate that he makes me feel this way. Ill at ease. Out of control. Hungry. Desperate. Hate it but love it too. Just like Paris, he makes me feel alive in a way no one else has ever done.
I step towards him, the soft fabric of my dress scratching against my sensitised skin, pulse hammering in my throat…
He shifts in the chair, inching out of the shadows, dark eyes raking over me, stripping me bare.
